CSR - SDG 8: Decent work & economic growth
In our work on the energy transition, we want to utilize every talent in society. That's why we strive to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable growth, full and productive employment and decent, safe work for all, contributing to SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth. With our increasing work package, we create fair jobs in the energy transition in our regions, where the safety of our people comes first, both at work and in the workplace. Enexis Group endorses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and has further elaborated these principles in its personnel policy: in this way we ensure that we deal with each other in a fair and dignified manner. Read more below about the way we deal with safety, the wellbeing of our employees and our search for future employees.
Safety is always our top priority, even when the days are busy. Our goal is to have zero accidents: we want everyone to return home safely after a day of work. A fatal accident at the end of 2017 and a serious accident at the end of 2018 made a deep impression on our employees and this still can be felt in de workspace. That is why we continue to invest in safety training and we frequently discuss safety within the workspace, while also paying attention to the role that individual employees can play in maintaining of a safe working environment. For example: Do we dare to talk to each other about potentially unsafe situations? Even if a colleague is older and has more experience?
Life Saving Rules
We do everything we can to break through ingrained patterns and to open up culture and our behavior towards safety. We do this for ourselves, but also for more than 2,000 employees of contractors who work for Enexis Group. We make one team, where the same safety rules apply to all. In 2019, we introduced the 'Life Saving Rules', ten basic rules for safe working that no one working for or with us should exceed. Regularly, we hold workplace dialogues to continuously increase safety awareness. This approach reinforces the understanding of safety between employees in implementation and management. It brings obstacles to the surface that employees experience in being able to work safely, so that they can be solved. We believe safety is created together, so that working safely comes natural for everyone.
Employees must not only be able to work safely, but also need to feel safe. We pay extra attention to integrity through internal campaigns. In this way we encourage employees to discuss and report matters. Everyone plays a role in creating a safe and pleasant workplace. For example, by allowing each other to make mistakes and be transparent about it, so we can learn from them. And by talking to each other instead of about each other. Undermining and threats to employees also have our attention. For example, to connect cannabis plantations, criminals benefit from the expertise of our employees. At the same time, opponents of wind farms would rather see our employees leave when they have the task to establish a connection between the windmills and the grid. By speaking openly about this, we strengthen the resilience of our people.
Fair personnel policy
Our commitment to our employees is elaborated in our HR policy, collective labor agreements and company regulations. Enexis Group recognizes and endorses the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its CSR policy. Aspects related to human rights, such as equal rights and employee participation, are detailed in the collective labor agreement and company regulations. There are various reporting procedures, confidential counselors and a regulation on alleged wrongdoing for reporting any violations. We also adhere to the guidelines for terms and conditions of employment that apply as fundamental principles and rights at work, as formulated by the International Labor Organization (ILO).
Our policy to prevent corruption or bribery of employees is set out in our Employee Conduct Guide, the Supplier Code of Conduct and in our General Purchasing Conditions. For reporting any violations, we have a regulation "Alleged abuses and irregularities" and confidential counselors have been appointed. In addition, there is an internal integrity committee that discusses any breaches of integrity and ensures that we continue to work on the cultural anchoring of integrity.
Wanted: new colleagues
The growth in the Enexis work package cannot be solved by working more efficiently only. However, there is a nation wide shortage of technical and IT staff which is pressing and in addition, many of our colleagues will be retiring soon. Since the labor market is tight, Enexis Groep and the energy sector are not the only affected parties by these developments: it also applies to other sectors in technology. By investing in the development and career prospects of our current employees, we want to encourage them to stay with us as much as possible. We are pleased with their involvement; everyone is willing to go the extra mile.
In addition, we are committed to an additional influx of new employees in our regions. We expanded the training capacity at our vocational school. We make maximum use of side inflow and we are running projects to offer status holders a place within our organization. Also, by offering work to people at a distance from the labor market, we strive for a diverse workforce, in which there is work for everyone.